Productivity and cost efficiency have been the most used words these daysreason ‘economic slow down’. Web collaboration solutions have proved to be most efficient tools in increasing productivity and keeping cost of travelling at bay.

There is a growing need to adopt technology that helps cut costs on travel. According to the Frost & Sullivan web conferencing report the web conferencing market for APAC was around 150- 200 million USD in 2006 which is estimated to have grown by approx. 8 times to one and half billion USD by now.

The rapid increase in demand for web conferencing software and services can be attributed to economic slowdown and need for better system and software interoperability. Web conferencing can enable geographically dispersed employees to collaborate online and improve their productivity. It is widely used for internal or external training purposes too. It is also been as a cost-effective sales tool to reach new customers located remotely.

Since web conferencing works on a SaaS platform it puts aside concerns about data storage, deployment and additional hardware installation. The model of web conferencing gives the flexibility to upgrade the number of users easily; this is a good opportunity for businesses to save costs and keep them running effectively.

Web conferencing services and software have experienced a dramatic surge of popularity recently. Organizations of all sizes have found that web conferencing can be used in all departments, in all lines of business, for interactive training, off-shore manufacturing and out-sourced operations support, sales presentations, standing and ad-hoc meetings, just to mention some of the most popular applications of the technology.

Web conferencing and its functionalities:

Though Collaborative technologies is still not known by the mass, it has made in roads into several sectors including manufacturing, retail, healthcare, pharma and education. Collaborative technologies in manufacturing companies help them create group meetings in virtual workplaces using the on-demand web conferencing technology. This facilitates the inter department communication and dealer, vendor meetings, During a product launch a vendor shares marketing collateral online with his channel partners and can fine tune his marketing strategy. It is effective to create team workspaces with adequate authentication and security mechanisms and enforce policies, giving the data complete security. Developers can enjoy the flexibility to roll out applications quickly and customers can enjoy the freedom to choose from multiple vendors.

With the help of Cisco WebEx, we have been able to facilitate employees from multiple departments to engage in hassle-free online meetings – Tarun Dev Sharma, Vice President, Ess Dee Nutek Infinities

This tool is used from product development to marketing, resulting into shorter turn around time for product design cycle, supply chain and off shoring. Web conferencing is extensively used for multi-party audio and data conferencing, synchronous video conferencing, application sharing, dynamic power point presentation sharing and documents sharing.

Whether it is to increase sales effectiveness, enhance customer support, better communication with partners or permit employees to effectively coordinate their work with colleagues. Web conferencing can produce tangible benefits and measurable results. It is for these reasons that a significant proportion of large-scale enterprises have adopted Web conferencing, and a growing number of smaller businesses are following suit. Web conferencing is a perfect way to cost-effectively deliver presentations, product demonstrations, meetings, seminars and training in today’s increasingly virtual workplace.

Real-time application:

Canon, one of the biggest players in the digital camera market, has been using CiscoWebex web conferencing to connect to dealers in remote locations. Canon also uses Training Center to conduct virtual product demonstrations used in selling to customers. When prospective sale involves sophisticated applications, the dealer calls a Canon field analyst for assistance. Around 20 Canon field instructors have been trained on WebEx. These field instructors deliver one- or two-hour trainings to approximately eight dealer sales people at a time. Using WebEx, Canon now trains approximately 40 sales professionals each week, without travelling and other training cost. In the past, field analysts had to travel to assist with each sale. With web conferencing, field analysts now conduct detailed online demonstrations that answer customer centric queries. Cisco WebEx has transformed Canon’s training model, increasing the speed with which the company trains dealer salespeople while saving tens of thousands of dollars a year in travel and lost-opportunity costs. Virtual demos are a way of saving up on travel and also on time taken for training the dealers. There is lesser need for travel and has helped them avoid losing opportunities and save on costs.

Manufacturers can also leverage this technology to make sure personnel are trained and up-to-speed on new ERP, control systems, front office operations, supply chain and CRM software. Organisations can use a web conference to meet, virtually, with co-workers around the globe anytime and any place with just a standard web browser and good Internet connection.

Today, many companies are facing the same challenge: how to improve communications and increase productivity, while reducing operational costs and they are increasingly looking at collaboration softwares to help meet and solve these challenges. Web conferencing can save manufacturers, or any organization that is dispersed geographically, both time and money — and increase customer contact. Time spent out of the office traveling for general business meetings or even standard customer visits is usually time not well spent. This is especially true where visits are routine, back-and-forth between the same locations. Companies spend a great deal of capital on business travel that could be put to better use, such as hiring new sales personnel, updating manufacturing systems and other worthy capital investments.

Promising future for collaboration market

There is no time like the present to adopt new software and technologies that can make companies more efficient and enable communication and interaction in real-time. The future of web conferencing is promising. Global workforces will hold high-quality web conferences, complete with voice, video and file sharing, from a mobile phone or PDA. This will unleash workers from their desks and empower them to reach new productivity goals regardless of physical location. The adoption of web conferencing in India is fast increasing with providers looking at consistent experience to all users. Increasing broadband usage is another factor that will not restrict the use of this solution to regions with limited access. Moreover with India being the potential market for web conferencing, the market is now ready for converged solutions. Innovative collaborative software and technology solutions can actually save a great deal of money spent on business travel, training and increase productivity by keeping key personnel in the office rather than waiting in airports to get to destinations that are really just a mouse-click away.